Mormon Leader Says Policy Against Gay Marriage was Word From God

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A high-ranking Mormon leader says the church policy against same-sex marriage was a revelation from God.

Apostle Russell M. Nelson, head of the religion's governing body and next in line for the Mormon presidency, said in a worldwide speech Sunday that Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas S. Monson received instructions regarding same-sex couples directly from God.

Nelson said that led the church to consider gay marriage a sin worthy of expulsion and forbid children of such couples from becoming members of the church. Those children can become Mormons once they are 18 if they renounce same-sex marriage.

Nelson, a 91-year-old apostle, described how church leaders arrived at the decisions during a live-streamed speech from the campus of church-owned Brigham Young University-Hawaii.